But one group of Cain supporters have created a new ad that accuses those investigating Cain, reporting on the investigation of Cain, and discussing the reporting of the investigation of Cain of participating in…wait for it…a high tech lynching.

Sound familiar?

It should!

That phrase, “high tech lynching”, was made infamous by a certain Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas when he was accused of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing.

Thomas was eventually confirmed and has gone pretty much mute while on the bench.

And ‘tis his eventual confirmation that always made my Afro hurt when pondering his use of the phrase “high tech lynching”.

Nothing screams that a person or organization lacks a proper knowledge of a thing like an inaccurate analogy.

If you are able to protest your treatment during a confirmation hearing…and later in a book…then you were not the victim of a lynching, high tech or real world.

If you are fundraising up a storm in the midst of accusations that you sexually harassed more than one woman…then you are not in the midst of a high tech lynching.

If your website is still “living”…if your campaign has not been wiped clean from and effectively killed off online…then you have not been subject to a high tech lynching.

Unless…unless these Cain supporters feel that the Cain campaign is in the final throes of political death and that it’s demise if certain…only then would the phrase “high tech lynching” apply.

Lynchings are murders…endings, for the love of history...they brought about and indeed still bring about the end of life.

I don’t care how much a body adores Herman Cain and I don’t give a shit how upset they are about his treatment in the press, this inaccurate analogy corrupts a history that has never truly been acknowledged.

Herman Cain clearly weathered the storm of more than one accusation of sexual harassment several years ago…his employer settled rather than fire him…he then went on to run for the GOP nomination for President, where he faces questions about those accusations. For the most part, the firestorm has resulted from his campaigns fucked up from the floor up handling of those questions. Either way, Herman Cain will be here once the dust settles. Odds are he’ll even be online in some form or another. He may even be the GOP nominee.

This shit is in no way, shape, or form the equivalent of a lynching.

A witch-hunt perhaps…depends on how you view the situation.

But I sure as shit don’t see any digital strange fruit hanging from cyber trees…

…anymore than I see that shit when I ponder the fact that the original “victim” of a high tech lynching is still enjoying life as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

There's video of the interview at the link, but I couldn't bring myself to look at it.

Shark-fu, if you *do* decide to click through and watch that interview, do us all a favor. Put down any sharp objects, and make sure there's a freshly poured vodka-cran restorative beverage handy -- but not too handy. Put it out of reach before you click on the video until the interview is over, as I'd hate for you to spill it or throw it at your computer.

This infuriates me, but what makes me even angrier is meanwhile there's a photoshopped pic floating around tumblr of the President being actually lynched, and tumblr admins refuse to do anything about it even after a ton of us have filed complaints that it violates their hate speech policy.

Well, I only knew two kinds of lynching, the traditional one, with a rope, a tree and a horse (by films) and the modern one, with a tire, some oil and a lighter/ a match . The latter I was aware of for two reasons : * when I went to a market outside Europe, and I knew there were some thieves, I kept quiet as whatever could be stolen out of me did not deserve death penalty.* In a market, I once asked about what were firemen doing, and why thy were there, and learned someone had been burned (in fact, he was an apprentice among an auto mecanic, and he was thought as being a tire thief : his boss thus lost an apprentice and a wheel).

When I see political men complaining upon "mediatic lynching" or "internet lynching", I find the contrast between the sufferings they endure, the facts (rape, corruption; both) and the wilderness of real life lynching (which may affect innocents) very confusing.

Considering that witch hunts also ended in the murder of many accused - and that the gender disparity involved was enough to the point they could be called systematic slaughter of women, its really not appropriate to call it that either.